Henderson retains title with win over Edgar at UFC 150

In the main event at UFC 150, lightweight champion Benson Henderson won by split decision over former champion Frankie Edgar to retain his title at the Pepsi Center in Denver.

The bout was so close that both fighters asked UFC president Dana White after the fight for his opinion on who won. He told both fighters, “I’m not a judge, bro.”

White has been one of the sport's harshest critics toward the judges and referees. He has said in the past, “Judging and the reffing is so bad in mixed martial arts, it drives me crazy.”

Both fighters were so evenly matched that at times the bout became boring. It resembled a boxing match with neither fighter pressing the action. Henderson has won both head-to-head matches, so I don’t see this becoming a trilogy.

Edgar (14-3-1, 9-3-1 UFC), landed the biggest punch of the bout, but it was the champion Henderson (17-2, 5-0 UFC) who did the most damage for 25 minutes.

Henderson land several leg kicks in the opening rounds that kept Edgar off balance. He realized after the fight that he should have capitalized on them, “The first couple of rounds I landed some good low kicks,” Henderson said. "I didn't do a good enough job of capitalizing and getting on top of him when he was off balance.”

Top contender Nate Diaz will be Henderson’s next opponent for the lightweight title.

The co-main event between former teammates Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone (19-4-1, 6-1 UFC), and Melvin “The Young Assassin” Guillard (47-12-3, 11-7 UFC) was the most exciting fight of the night. Despite only lasting 1:16 into the first round, it was packed with action from both fighters.

Guillard landed an overhand right and a knee to the body of Cowboy that dropped the Colorado native to the canvas. “I was extremely hurt, especially from the knee to the body,” Cerrone said. “It took everything in me to just fight through it and keep going. That was probably the worst I’ve ever been injured in a fight.”

Cerrone was able to survive and land a high left kick to the head of Guillard. The kick didn’t look as if it landed flesh on Guillard’s head, but it was enough to daze him. Cerrone followed with a straight right hand that knocked his opponent out. Usually a fighter would have so much adrenaline that they would get a finishing blow to the face of their unconscious opponent. But Cerrone didn’t take the shot.

During the post-fight news conference, Cerrone explained why he didn’t. “There were a lot of things people were asking me, ‘Will it be hard to finish a teammate?’ And I would say, ‘No,’ But when you’re actually there with that finishing blow, it was very hard. So instead, I went for the choke.”

Cerrone also earned an additional $120,000 for Fight of the Night and Knockout of the Night.

Always the businessman, Cerrone asked to be on the UFC 150 fight card right after his last fight on Fuel TV 3 against Jeremy Stephens. This time he has picked his next opponent in Anthony Pettis.